Remove encroachments on river banks; build alternative

Chennai, Nov 15 (PTI) The Madras High Court today directed Tamil Nadu government to remove at the earliest encroachment along three water bodies here which was one of the reasons for the December 2015 floods and build alternative tenements for those evicted.

The encroachments are on the banks of Adyar and Cooum rivers and Buckingham canal. The court was passing interim orders on a batch of PILs, including by Rajiv Rai, seeking appointment of a high-power committee, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, to ascertain the reasons for the December floods.

After perusing the PWD Secretarys affidavit and the submission by Rais counsel, the court said the petitioners plea was that the plan was more or less a duplication of the Himachal Plan and that hat was good for hill area may not be necessarily capable of being implemented for Tamil Nadu. The petitioner also submitted that there has to be a long term and short-term perspective to tackle the menace. The bench noted the petitioners submission that there was no flood forecasting station of Central Water Commission in Tamil Nadu, though 14 were proposed to be set up The court said that till such stations are set up in the short term, alternative arrangements would have to be made. It directed the petitioners to give their suggestions in two weeks, which the State Disaster Management Authority would examine. If these were found appropriate, they would be incorporated as found necessary. Suggestions along with those not found feasible would be forwarded to National Disaster Management Authority for its inputs,results of which would then be placed before the Court. After going through the government affidavit, which said that 55,000 encroachments were identified, of which only 4,134 have been evicted and re-settled,the court said going by sheer numbers, there was an enormity of problems of encroachments. It said the state government will have to take expeditious steps for early removal of encroachments by constructing alternative tenements. The progress report should be filed before the next date of hearing, it said. The court stressed the need of a short-term plan to meet exigencies till a new compendium is prepared on capacities of various reservoirs in the state and directed the government to address this aspect. It recorded petitioners submission that quantum of water released from dams on the basis of the capacity of Adyar river has to be identified, keeping in mind current encroachments. The government would have to examine this aspect also and file a status report, the court said and posted the matter to January 30. PTI COR APR ZMN TRK

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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